Ep. 1 "The Awakening"

In this premiere episode of The Sparks Show, host Spencer Parks shares a powerful personal journey — from growing up in the Obama era to discovering the truth-driven message of Charles James Kirk, and how his courage ignited a generation.

Spencer reflects on his own awakening — from college campuses silencing dissent, to starting a business built on faith and independence, to standing firm through the chaos of COVID and today’s cultural divide.

This episode isn’t about politics — it’s about truth, courage, and conviction. It’s a call for Americans to return to faith, family, and freedom.

The fight for truth isn’t over — it’s just beginning!

Join our growing community of truth-seekers who put God, Country, and Family first.

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Together we’re igniting truth, defending freedom, and carrying the torch forward.

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Transcript

0:00

Before I tell you who I am or why this show exists, I want to begin with a name. Charles James Kirk. Charlie was more than a commentator or a headline or the guy who showed up on college campuses to debate the liberal professors. He was a spark, a living reminder that courage still matters. He inspired millions of young Americans, including myself, to stop apologizing for loving God and loving this country. It's remarkable to say this, but Charlie and I were nearly the same age. I'm just a few months older. Yet, even being peers, he managed to inspire me in ways older mentors had not. When I came out of high school in 2011, we were living through the second term of President Obama. I remember watching Congress push through the Affordable Care Act, the first true socialized health care law in American history. And the feeling I was stunned that we had allowed it to happen, it felt like a turning point. Even back then, I was vocal about politics. I argued at lunch tables. I always tried understanding why people thought the way they did. But instead of diving in myself, I mostly followed the voices who had already commanded the arena. People like Ben Shapiro, Dennis Prager, Michael Knowles, and several others who were influential at the time. They all spoke with sharp logic and moral clarity. In 2012, I started at community college. I studied hard, finished my transfer credits, and enrolled at Cal State Northridge in 2015, the same year Donald Trump announced his run for president. And that's when everything changed for me. I can still picture the campus, the tension, the hostility toward anyone who dared wear a red MAGA hat. I watched friends mocked and shouted down. Overnight, I went from feeling like part of a majority to realizing I was now in the minority. It wasn't just the students, it was the classrooms. Professors pushing the same talking points, shutting down discussion the moment someone challenged the narrative. Eventually, I stopped looking forward to class. I dreaded it. I knew in my heart something was wrong. And as hard as it was, I dropped out. At first, I felt lost. But deep down, I also felt free because Charlie Kirk was right. The system was broken. I worked countless jobs trying to find my purpose. Construction, service work, anything that kept me moving. One day, a family friend running his own service business gave me a chance. That job changed my life. I learned what it meant to serve customers, to solve problems, to build something tangible. A few years later in 2018, I took a leap of faith and started my own service company. Coincidentally, that was around the same time Charlie was building Turning Point USA. While he built a national movement, I built something a little smaller, something local, something that would one day provide for my family. Different skills, same spirit, two young men choosing work over words, faith over fear. Charlie didn't just tell us what was wrong with the country. He modeled what conviction looks like. And that's what I admired most. He saw that America's problems weren't just political or economic, they were spiritual. He often said that we have a Christian government built on biblical principles, but we no longer have a Christian population to sustain it. And because of that, our system has become spiritually incompatible with itself. He was right. We have the blueprint for freedom, but we've abandoned the author who wrote it. We call ourselves one nation under God, but we don't even say the Pledge of Allegiance in schools anymore. We legislate morality without living it. We stamp in God we trust on our money, yet refuse to trust Him with our lives. We accept our God-given rights as Americans, but we do not accept Lord as our Savior. Charlie saw the moral rot underneath the surface. The breakdown of family, the worship of self, the addiction to screens and validation. He watched an entire generation trade truth for comfort, and he decided to fight back. He told young men that happiness doesn't come from parties or politics, but from purpose. He said, Men are happier when they get married, have kids, and raise a family. A 2,000-year-old tradition that has withstood the test of time. He wasn't preaching nostalgia, he was describing reality. Because men lead families, families flourish. When families flourish, communities heal. And when communities heal, nations thrive. That's why he talked about faith, family, and freedom in the same breath. Because they rise and fall together. We all fall short of the glory of God. Charlie wasn't perfect. He knew it well. None of us are, but he was brave. He stood in truth while the world mocked him for it. And when tragedy struck and he was assassinated, it hit me hard. Because if evil can silence him, it will try to silence us all. But the truth is, his mission didn't die that day. It multiplied. His courage lit a fire in millions of people, and I'm one of them. So this first episode of The Spark Show is dedicated to Charles James Kirk, a husband, a believer, a patriot, and a man who carried the torch of truth until his final breath. God bless you, Charlie. My name is Spencer Parks. I'm a 32-year-old husband, father, business owner, and a believer in Jesus Christ. Starting my business changed my life. It all allowed me to stand on my own two feet and make decisions based on faith and family, not fear or outside approval. It gave me a shield against noise and helped me grow unwavering in my beliefs, both spiritually and politically. When the COVID pandemic hit, my business was labeled essential. My parents' hair salon, their livelihood of more than 30 years, was labeled non-essential and forced to close. While my company grew, their business was destroyed. That contrast burned into my soul. I refused to bow to fear. I refused to let government coercion dictate my conscience. When vaccine mandates threatened livelihoods, I stood my ground because freedom means choice, and choice is sacred. I brought my dad into my business so he could keep working after losing everything. God had a plan and we adapted. But the heartbreak remained. Families were torn apart, loved ones kept out of hospitals, people dying alone. That kind of separation was one of the darkest moments of government overreach in our lifetime. We were told to obey, to stop asking questions, to accept whatever the experts said. But truth doesn't fear questions, and time has revealed that much of what we were told wasn't the full story. Treatments once dismissed later proved helpful. Data changed, policy shifted, and the public trust broke. If you stood firm though, through all of it, you questioned, doubted, or refused to comply blindly, you probably learned what I did. Our health institutions need accountability and transparency, not blind faith. I'm grateful for modern medicine. Without it, I wouldn't be here. I live with Crohn's disease, and I rely on treatments that improve my quality of life. Even knowing they carry risk. Some of those therapies increase my chance of cancer by threefold. However, that's not easy to accept. It's a strange place to be, to see corruption in a system, yet still depend on it to survive. But I've learned that not everything is evil and not everything is good. We can hold both truths at once, criticizing what's broken while being thankful for what works. That balance is where discernment lives. Since 1993, I've watched five different presidents take office, each promising unity, each leaving us more divided. I was a kid on 9-11, second grade, and that morning taught me that evil is real. Then came the crash of 08, families losing their homes, people losing hope, and then came global health crises one after another, each chipping away at our freedoms while claiming to protect us. Every event pushed me to think deeper and fight harder. Fight harder for the truth. Over the years, I've watched culture twist truth into opinion, faith became something to hide. We started calling sin self-expression, and confusion comparison or compassion. We blurred the line between feelings and facts. The political left, once the loudest voice for free speech, has become the loudest voice for censorship. We were told socialism could be compassion, compassionate, yet history keeps proving the opposite. That's why so many people from the Democratic Party have walked away, including Tulsi Gabbard, Robert Kennedy, Elon Musk, Joe Rogan, and of course our current president, President Donald J. Trump. They walked away from party lines altogether, and they realized this isn't left versus right anymore. It's truth versus lies, light versus darkness, God versus Satan. I've watched President Trump be relentlessly attacked by political opponents. From the moment he announced his candidacy, the establishment tried to stop him. Through investigations, lawsuits, and endless controversy, yet every attempt failed. And when all else failed in 2024, at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, there was an attempt on his life. He survived by the grace of God. However, a tragedy occurred and we lost a soul there. It showed me how far evil will go to silence truth. And that's when I decided no more silence. I call this show The Spark Show for a reason. Because truth is a fire. You can try to smother it, but it always finds oxygen. And when it does, it spreads. My goal isn't to preach to one side, it's to reach anyone willing to think. You don't have to agree with me to know something's broken. All you need is honesty. We'll talk about faith, family, politics, and culture, the real issues shaping our generation. We'll talk about why young men are lost and why families are falling apart. We'll talk about freedom of speech, freedom of faith, and the right to disagree without being erased. You might not like everything I say, and that's okay. In fact, you don't like it, listen twice, because truth isn't comfortable, it's convicting. This show is for the moderate who knows the media isn't telling the whole story, for the young person searching for faith again, for the parents trying to protect their children's innocence in a world that mocks it. Because the only way to fix this, country, is by starting at the root, our hearts. Freedom was never a government gift. It's a God-given right. You don't have to be Republican to believe that. You just have to be awake. I believe God is raising a generation that will not bow to fear, a generation that will speak truth no matter the cost, a generation that will restore honor, duty, and faith to the American spirit. And I believe it starts right here, with you listening right now. Every revival in the history of our country began with ordinary people who refuse to stay silent. If you're tired of lies, division, and fear, then you're in the right place. This is our time to stand. This is our time to speak. This is our time to carry the torch. My name is Spencer Parks. I'm not a politician or a celebrity. I'm a husband, a father, an entrepreneur, and a Christian American who still believes this nation can be saved. Evil thrives when good men do nothing, and I will not do nothing for God, for country, for family. Welcome to the Spark Show, where we ignite truth, defend freedom, and carry the torch forward for Charlie. God bless you all. God bless America, and I hope to see you on the next episode of The Spark Show. Thank you, everyone.